ISLAM AND THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST

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The major most difference between Islam and Christianity revolves around
the divinity of Christ. Whereas the Koran states that Jesus was no more than a prophet of
God, a human being, Christian doctrine insists that he was in some way divine, a son of
God. The doctrine of God incarnate, whereby it is implied that that "word" that
was divine became flesh states the same thing. The concept of the Trinity, popular among
the majority of Christian churches embodies within itself the notion that three distinct
co-equals are God.

The Koran states unequivocally, that God is just one (indivisible) and that no one can be
held equal to God.

This forms the very heart and the basis of the system called Islam. The Christian articles
of God-Incarnate, Son of God, Holy Trinity, clearly violate the oneness of God that Islam
teaches.

In any logical/scientific study of religion, it is necessary to consider the facts and
then go to the origin of the dis-equilibrium, as opposed to just dealing with the
subjective claims of the followers of the various systems.

The standard for Islam is the Koran, that for Christianity is the Bible particularly the
New Testament. Let us go to the sources and examine them.

As this document is being written by a Muslim, it is understood that the majority of
people belonging to the "other camp," will be skeptical as to the intentions and
purpose of this research. For this reason, I request that the style of the document be
considered, which will according to my purpose show that value judgments have been avoided
and that the arguments and quotations are stated clearly and truthfully. If however it is
still believed that I have falsified some information or misquoted from the source book,
it is requested that
corrections be sent to the author for comments and consideration and possible change of
stand on issues.

THE TRINITY:

The Athnasian Creed states the concept of the Holy Trinity in its standard form. Its
wording runs as follows:"There is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and
another of the Holy Ghost. But the
Godhead of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is all one, the glory equal,
the majesty co-eternal....The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Ghost is God, and
yet there are not three Gods but one God."

GOD INCARNATE:

This concept in its summary states that God became a man, and that that man was Jesus. It
is claimed that Jesus shared the nature of God in every way and that he was in every way a
God, and a man. He was the only "begotten" son of
God and hence a "son of God" in a unique fashion.

From the standpoint of mathematics and the English language, when we say that this is a
person, that is another person and that that one is yet another, it is understood that
there are three people involved and not just one. One plus one plus one will always be
three and not one. Therefore, the concept of Trinity is itself faulty in its
wording. If the three are separately and distinctly God then there are three distinct
Gods, according to the language. If there is only One God, then each, Father, Son and Holy
Ghost , on their own cannot be God.

From the standpoint of the human mind's comprehension, when the preacher says, "In
the Name of the Father," a certain distinct mental image or idea emerges. When he
continues, "And the Son, "the idea or image that one gets now is different. The
same is the case when the words Holy Ghost are uttered by the preacher. No matter
how hard you try, you can never super-impose these three distinct pictures as one. Three
persons can never be one person. One person can have parts to his/her personality.
Together those parts form the person. However, the concept of the Trinity states it
completely different. It is claimed that Jesus is not a part of God but 100%
God on his own, so also the Holy Ghost and the Father. But then it is conluced that they
are not three but One God. The premise of the statement does not support its conclusion
about there being One God. It makes the assertion about the trinity impossible to prove
logically and reduces it to just words which can not have any meaning.

Jesus, according to the source of Christianity, in the records that we have of his
sayings, never made a claim to be divine. In an answer to a question on what the first
commandment was, he replied, "The First is, "Hear O
Israel, the Lord our God is One (Mark 12:29)."

The word translated "one" in the above verse is the Hebrew IKHAD. This word is
the same as the Arabic AHAD. It means one whole, indivisible. It doesn't and cannot in
anyway represent the Trinity but rather it disqualifies it. It is well documented and
understood by scholars of the history of Christianity, universally, that the Trinity was a
later invention, and was never preached by Jesus. Jesus preached about the one God and His
kingdom.

When the believers in the divinity of Christ are asked on whether Jesus himself ever made
a claim to be God, in the sources that they have, a handful of basically similar
references across the board are offered to the questioner. However, all of these
references when studied in their context and in the context of other explicit statements
made by Jesus, fail to prove that Jesus was claiming to be God in any way. There are three
main problems with the claims that are presented. They are either i)insufficient on their
own to prove the divinity of
any person, ii) or it is impossible, on the basis of the verse alone to prove the divinity
of any person, or iii) They are ambiguous; in that they are open to alternative
interpretation which is more valid than what is asserted.

THE CLAIMS:

Claim 1>. Jesus says, " I and the Father are One (John
10:30)."

It is claimed on the basis of this quotation (which is almost always presented without its
context) that Jesus was claiming equality with God. The problem with this assertion is
that the context has been taken out, either deliberately or out of ignorance. My
experience with people presenting this claim is that often enough they are even unaware of
where the quotation came from in the Gospel of John.

Beginning at verse 23 of the Gospel of John, chapter 10 we read (in the context of 10:30)
about Jesus talking to the Jews. In verse 28, talking about his followers as his sheep, he
states: "...Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. 29)My Father who gave them me, is greater than all, and no man is able to
pluck them out of my Father's hand. 30) I and the Father are One."

The above verses prove only that Jesus and the Father are one in that no man can pluck the
sheep out of either's hand. It does not at all state that Jesus is God's equal in
everything. In fact the words of Jesus, " My Father, who
gave them me is Greater than ALL...," completely negates this claim, otherwise we are
left with a contradiction just a sentence apart. All includes everyone even Jesus.

In the 17th chapter of John, verses 20-22, the same word ONE used in the above verses, the
Greek, HEN is used, not only to describe Jesus and the Father but to describe Jesus, the
Father and eleven of the twelve disciples of Jesus. So here if that implies equality, we
have a unique case of 13 Gods.

"That the ALL may be made ONE. Like thou Father art in me, I
in thee, that they may be ONE in us. I in
them, they in me, that they may be perfect in ONE (John 17:20-22)."

Of the verse in question,"I and the Father are One(John
10:30)," we also need to take note of the verses following the 30th verse
in the text. In those verses, the Jews accuse Jesus falsely of claiming to be God by these
words. He however replies, proving their accusation wrong by their own text:" The
Jews answered him saying,'For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and
because that thou being a man, makest thyself a God '(John 10:33)."

Jesus replies to this accusation saying: "Jesus answered them, 'Is it not written in
your Law, "I said ye are gods.
"If He can call them gods, unto whom the word of God came, say ye of him whom the
Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, "Thou blasphemeth," because I
said I am the son of God?' (John 10:34-36)."

In the language of the Bible, in Psalms 82 from which Jesus quotes above, the word
"gods" is used by God to describe the prophets ("to whom the word of God
came"). Jesus argues with them that if God can call the prophets gods, then his
saying that he is the "son of God," is no claim to divinity, just as the other
prophets were not God just because they were referred to as gods by God himself.
The point that Jesus makes to the Jews is further proven by the use of the term "son
of God," in both the Old and the New Testament. Metaphorically speaking, God is the
cherisher and sustainer and hence the "Father" of everybody. This doesn't mean
that the person so described as a "son of God" is physically begotten by God or
of the same nature as God. Otherwise the term "son of God" would not make any
sense. God by definition
signifies one who received his existence from nobody, whereas son signifies someone who
received his existence from somebody else. God and son are mutually exclusive terms, they
cannot go together. The use of the term by Jesus and in other places in the Bible is
metaphoric and not literal.

The many Sons of God in the Bible:
1. Luke 3:38 "...Adam which was the Son of God."
2. Genesis 6:2 &4 "That the sons of God saw the daughters of men...and when the
sons of God came in unto
the daughters of men..."
3. Exodus 4:22 "Israel is my son even my first born."
4. Romans 8:14 "For as many as are led by the spirit of God are called sons of
God,"
5. Matthew 5:9 "Blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called sons of
God."

By the above quotations from the Bible it should be clear that the term "son of
God," signifies only a righteous person. It does not mean that the person so titled
is divine, or we would have hundreds of Gods according to the Bible. Jesus is described as
the "son of man," 83 times in the New Testament whereas he's described only 13
times as the son of God. What we also see is that Jesus used the terms, "Your
Father," "Thy Father," describing God's relationship with people 13 times
before the first time he ever said, "My Father," about God. All these show that
he was in no way implying that God physically begot him.

It is claimed that in John 3:16 (the favorite verse of the evangelists) that Jesus is
referred to as the only son of God. A careful reading of the verse compared to Hebrews 11:17 shows that Isaac is described as the only son of
Abraham, whereas literally speaking Isaac was never the only son of Abraham as Ishmael was
born before him. The use of the word is metaphoric, Jesus was special among the sons of
God.

Peter in the Book of Acts testifies about Jesus: "O you men of Israel, hear these
words: Jesus of Nazareth, a MAN approved of God among you...(Acts
2:22)." Jesus thus even to his disciples, as to early Christians, not poisoned by
Pauline doctrine, was a man, not a God.

Claim 2> Another claim that is often times made is concerning Isaiah
7:14. In the Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament of the Bible it states: "Therefore,
the Lord himself will give you a sign, behold a
will conceive and bear a child and shall call his name Immanu-el."

It is claimed that the above was a prophecy about the birth of Jesus to the virgin Mary.
It is further claimed that since the word Immanuel means "God with us," the
person being talked about, i.e Jesus was God.

The above quotation is from the King James Version of the Bible. The word translated as
"virgin" is the wrong translation of the Hebrew word ALMAH. The word ALMAH in
Hebrew means "young woman." The correct Hebrew word for virgin is BETHULAH.
Since many young women begot children since those words were penned, it is not at all
necessary that those words should apply to Jesus.

Another fact that is often ignored is that Jesus was never named Immanuel, nor did anyone
ever address him as Immanuel when he lived. On the contrary, the Messiah was named Jesus
(Luke 2:21) by the angel according to the gospels. Also, even if a person is named
Immanuel, it doesn't mean that the person so named is God.
Consider for example all the people named ELI in the Old Testament. ELI means God in the
Hebrew. It is also narrated that Jesus while talking to God referred to Him as ELI (Mark 15:34 & Matthew 27:46). We cannot however on this basis
of just name accept all the people named ELI in the Old Testament as Gods. Similarly, we
cannot accept a person named Immanuel (God with us) as God. Jesus was never named Immanuel
anyway,
so both ways the argument and claim are false.

Claim 3> Another common claim is John 1:1 which reads:
"In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was
God." This is often presented from the Gospel of John to prove that Jesus was God.
There are however several problems with this claim:

By the above verse it is assumed that Jesus was the "word" and since the word
was God and became flesh, Jesus is God. The statement that John reproduced in his gospel
however was uttered not by John but by a certain Philo of Alexandria, years before Jesus
or John were born. It is therefore completely unlikely that Philo was even remotely
referring to Jesus.

There is also another reason, considering the Greek of the above verse which disproves the
assertion that Jesus is referred to as God in the verse. In the verse above, the first
time the word God is used, the Greek is HOTHEOS, which means The God. The second time the
word God is used,"....and the word was God," the word for God is TONTHEOS, which
means A God. Europeans have evolved a system of capital and small letters non-existent in
Greek. The God, HOTHEOS is translated as God with a capital G, whereas Tontheos, which
means A or ANY God is translated with a small g, god. In this case however, we see the
unlawful translators trying to prove Jesus being God by putting capital G for both whereas
it doesn't belong in the case of
the "word".

Check out Exodus 7:1 (God said to Moses)"See I have made you a
god (in the Greek it would be Tontheos, doesn't mean God almighty but just a god.) to
Pharaoh and Aaron thy brother will be thy prophet."

2 Corinthians 4:4 Paul states that the Devil is the God (should be Hotheos in Greek but
the translators translate it with a small g instead of capital) of the world.

The word "god" in the Bible is used for every other person including the
prophets. It does not mean the person is God almighty. As examples consider the above
quote from Exodus where Moses is referred to as God and also Psalms 82:6 where God
allegedly refers to the prophets as gods: "I said, Ye are all gods and all of you are
the children of the Most High."

4. Another common claim presented from the Bible to "prove" the divinity of
Christ is presented surprisingly from the first chapter of the book of Genesis. God in
there says :"Let US create." The word us is plural and has been used by God for
himself in Genesis. Christians assert that this plural proves the Trinity, otherwise God
would have used the singular.

This claim is ill founded. An ignorance of eastern languages including Hebrew and Arabic
prompts such a claims. In most eastern languages, there are two types of plurals: plural
of numbers and plural of respect. In the Koran, God speaks of Himself as "us"
and "we" too. Yet in those verses no Muslim will ever doubt that God is
referring to Himself alone. Even in old English, the King or the Queen would use such
plurals for themselves
alone. An objective inquiry from Jewish scholars, whose book the Old Testament is, will
reveal the same. Also, modern translators recognize this and therefore translate the word
ELOHIM in the Old Testament as God and not Gods even though it is a plural. I have never
seen a Bible with the word ELOHIM translated as "Gods". It is a plural of
respect, it doesn't signify the Trinity.

5. Another common claim that is presented is Philip's statement in John 14:9 where Philip
asks to be shown God, and Jesus replies, " If you have seen me you have seen the
Father."

By this statement the Christian claims that what Jesus is really saying is that "I am
the Father." However, Jesus is not saying this. We need to read the context of the
verse in question. Beginning from verse 4, we see that the disciples are misunderstanding
Jesus from the beginning. Verse 4) Jesus is talking about a spiritual journey,
going to God whereas Thomas takes it to be a physical journey. In verse 7, Jesus makes
clear that to know him would be to know God since Jesus was conveying knowledge about God.
Philip then asks Jesus to show them the Father to which the response in 14:9 comes. Since
God cannot be seen according to the law of the Jews (which says that No one can see God
and live), the only way that He can be known is through His signs and
messengers. Jesus' response "If you have seen me you have seen the Father," is
consistent with this. He is not claiming to be God.

However, to further prove that Jesus was not claiming to be God, consider what Jesus
says in John 5:32 "You have not heard him (God) at any time NEITHER seen His shape or
form." Now the Jews and the disciples were seeing Jesus. If Jesus was God then this
statement by him is a gross error and a contradiction compared to John
14:9. No, Jesus was not claiming to be God in any way.

On the contrary Jesus says:
i) "The Father is greater than I." John 14:28
ii)"y Father is greater than ALL." (John 10:29)
iii)" I can of mine own self do NOTHING.....I seek not my own will but the will of
Him who sent me (John 5:30)."
iv) Jesus was sent according to the verse above by his own admission. In this verse he
himself says that the one who is sent:"..... the one who is sent is not greater than
the one who sent (John 13:16)."

God according to Judaism, Christianity and Islam has knowledge of everything. Jesus
according to the Gospels had limited knowledge and therefore can never be God:
"For of that hour (of Judgment) knows no man, no not the angels, NEITHER THE SON, but
the Father in heaven (John 10:32)."A similar idea is reflected in Mark 11: 12-13 where Jesus
appears ignorant of the season of fruiting of the fig tree.

6. In trying to prove the divinity of Jesus, Christians assert that Jesus gave life to the
dead, something which only God can do and hence he was God. The major problem with this
assertion is the continual denial on the part of Jesus that he was doing the miracles on
his own. In John 5:30 above, for example, we read that Jesus disclaims having the power to
do anything. In Matthew 28:18 it is further asserted that all power to do everything was
GIVEN to Jesus. In this context read John 12:49. Hence Jesus is the receiver (recipient)
and
not the originator of that power. Therefore he was not God. A reading of John 11:40-43,
which tells the story of the bringing back of Lazarus to life, clearly reveals that it was
God who brought Lazarus back to life, using Jesus:
"Then he took away the stone from the place the dead was laid; and Jesus lifted up
his eyes and said: 'Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me, and I know that you hear
me always....' (John 11:40-43)

God heard Jesus, and Jesus knew that God would work the miracle through him.

7. The Koran and the New Testament both suggest that Jesus was born without a father and
only had a mother.

This is sometimes presented by Christians to prove that God was the father of Jesus in a
physical sense and hence Jesus was God the son or the son of God.

The Koran clarifies this misconception by comparing the creation of Jesus to the creation
of Adam (Koran 3:59) God, who created the first humans could create a man without a
father. It is no big deal for God. The New Testament points to another man also, greater
than Jesus in his credentials, yet this man is ignored by main line Christianity:

"For this Melchizedec, King of Salem, priest of the Most High God....without father,
without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days or end of
life...." (Hebrews 7:1-3)

Can anyone match that?

Therefore it is insufficient on the basis of the above alone to prove that a person was
God just because he had no father. According to the Christian assumptions about God, He
has no shape or sex (see John 4:24), but Jesus had a human form and was of the male gender
(Luke 2:21). Therefore, Jesus cannot be God. God has no beginning or end. Jesus had a
beginning (Luke 2:6) and according to Christianity, a violent death on the cross.
Therefore he cannot be God.

8. It is often claimed that since Thomas referred to Jesus as "My God, my Lord (John
20:28)," that Jesus was God. An ignorance of the context of the verse and of
Christian doctrine prompts this claim.

The context of the verse talks about an unbelieving Thomas being surprised when Jesus
offers him evidence.
The exclamation, "My God," on his part was just astonishment. We use such
exclamations everyday while talking to people. This doesn't mean that the person we are
talking to is God. For example, I see John cutting his wrist with a Rambo knife. I say:
"My God, John what are you doing?" Do I mean that John is God? Of course not.
Similar is the use of the expression by Thomas. If you go into Jewish or Muslim societies
even today, you'll hear people exclaim "My God, my Lord," at every situation
which surprises them or causes them anguish or is astonishing.

In the verse above Thomas says: "My God, my Lord." He was not claiming that
Jesus was his i) God and ii) Lord. If he did then the church and the disciples should have
stamped him as a heretic right there and then.

Because claiming that Jesus is Lord and God is a violation of Christian doctrine, which
asserts that there is One God, the Father and One Lord, Jesus. Jesus can't be God and
Lord.

"...yet for us there is but one God, the Father...and one Lord, Jesus Christ (I
Corinthians 8: )

Believing the above (i.e Jesus is Lord and God) would leave a person with unorthodox
doctrine branded by the church as Sabellianism, Patripassianism, Monarchianism.

9. It is claimed that Jesus used the words, "I am", and since these same words
were used by God to describe Himself to the people in the Old Testament, Jesus was
claiming to be God. John 8:58, is presented to back this
claim. In the verse, Jesus says:" Before Abraham was I am."

Now, if Jesus existed before Abraham did, that might be a remarkable thing, but does that
prove that he was God? How many people existed before Abraham? The Bible presents Jeremiah
as being a prophet before he was conceived in his mother's womb (Jeremiah 1:5), yet no one
says that his pre-human existence qualifies him for deity.

In Exodus chapter 3, God allegedly says: "I am what I am." Long before the time
of Jesus, there existed a Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint.
The key word, "I am," in Exodus which is used by Christians to prove the deity
of Jesus is translated as "HO ON." However, when Jesus uses the word in John
8:58 the Greek of the "I am," is EGO EIMI. If Jesus wanted to tell the Jews that
he was claiming to be God he
should have at least remained consistent in the use of words or the whole point is lost.
How many people in that age would have said "I am," in answer to questions in
everyday life. Billions. Are they all gods? If you ask me :"Are you Mohammed,"
and I say "I am," am I claiming to be God just because God happened to use the
words
"I am?"

10. It is sometimes claimed that the use of the Hebrew word for father, ABBA, by Jesus for
God, signifies a special relationship of a physical type. This however is unwarranted
since every Christian is supposed to use the same word ABBA for God (see Romans 8:14, and
Galatians 4:6)

Sometimes, certain other terms used by Jesus for himself are presented to prove that he
was claiming divinity. Terms like "Messiah," and "Savior," are not
only applied to Jesus in the gospels but have been applied to others in the Bible. Yet in
their case, no one says that they prove divinity. If these claims were to be presented
truthfully then we would have not one but many candidates for divinity.

As examples, Cyrus the Persian, who was a pagan is called Messiah in the Bible (Isaiah
45:1). It is however covered up by the translators who translate the word as anointed. The
Hebrew and the Arabic word Messiah comes from the root Masaaha, which means to rub,
message or anoint. Ancient kings and priests were "anointed" or appointed, into
office. It does not mean that the person so named and termed is God at all. The
title of "savior," or "saviors" is used for other people in the Bible
(2 Kings 13:5 and Obadiah 21 and Nehemiah 9:27). Translators are well aware of this so
they substitute the word savior for deliverer to throw off readers.

Jesus had a servant-master relationship with God. He never claimed to be equal to God, or
to be of the same nature as God. Attributing divinity to Christ, a man goes completely
against his teachings as found in the New Testament of the Bible.

"...and go and tell my brethren that I ascend to My Father and Your Father, to MY GOD
and your God (John 20:17)."

Anyone who claims to have a God, cannot be God.

"Indeed they reject the truth, those that say "God is Christ, the son of
Mary." For indeed, Christ said, worship God, who is MY GOD and your God (Koran
5:75)."